Abbey Road church plays The Field

The Field will preach its strategy for repositioning London’s Abbey Road Baptist Church on 1 July, ahead of a complete rebrand due by the end of the summer. The project is believed to be worth in the region of £50 000 in fees.

The work will extend to a visual identity, stationery, website, literature and advertising, as the church seeks a contemporary brand to reflect its evangelical ethos and multicultural congregation.

‘We have a commodity that changes people’s lives for good,’ says Reverend Iain Batty, who commissioned the work. ‘It’s about showing the things that are special about us, putting on paper what we already are.’

According to The Field managing director Simon Barbato, leading the creative team with design director Steve Richardson, the initial task is to define the church’s brand values and key messages – those specific to its locality, rather than its general theology.

The work comes as the church, founded in 1863 and previously allied to the Abbey Christian School for the English Language, faces something of an identity crisis, despite its growing congregation.

The school was closed in June 2002 and Reverend Batty believes the church’s identity had been largely ‘swallowed up’ by an institution that was well known in the education world.

At the same time, the church is battling to persuade Westminster Council and English Heritage to approve a scheme involving developer Manhattan Lofts to regenerate its dilapidated premises, site of the original Abbey National Building Society.